Enjoyed the movie quite a bit, and didn't feel its length at all. Eric Bana did a marvelous job and Brad Pitt did his thing... haven't disliked him in a movie yet. I thought Helen was gorgeous.

Don't get me wrong, she isn't ugly by any means. I just don't think she had the amount of beauty that the myths/history demand.

Nicole Kidman? Most of the movie takes place outside. She couldn't be in it, she is so white she would burst into flames. But then again, they could have used her on the beach scene.

i saw Troy last nite!!!!!!

man o man it was great!!! from start to finish my heart was pumpin coz of the excitement!

the fight scenes were top notch, the emotional scenes had me choked up, damn i love this film!

i knew hector's death would upset me, but i still cried :cry:

i dunno wat else to say! but i intend to see it again a few weeks
when me friend comes home from Uni!

*congrats to wolfgang and co* the acting was amazing!

wat a masterpiece (sure its no LOTR, but dayum i loved it!)

Blood, Sweat n Tears *gasps*

thats it for now

ooh Rating: and 3/4 outta 5

G x

Saw it last night, and thought it was decent. Definitely not in the same class as epics like Braveheart, but not a complete let down either.

Brad Pitt's acting was not as good in Troy as I've seen him capable of in his previous works. But I'll cut him some slack considering the cheesy writing he had to work with. I felt the writers couldn't really make up their mind on Achilles' character, and mistakingly chose to depict him as "conflicted," taking his character in more directions than the story warranted. In the end, it just served to make all of those dimensions either over exaggerated (i.e. being driven by his desire to be remember throughout history), or unbelievable (i.e. his abrupt love affair with Bryseus). I agree though that his fighting scenes were well choreographed so that Achilles clearly stood out easily as the most fluid / best warrior.

Orlando Bloom was alright. I think he was cast well in the role of Paris, and did a decent job of pulling off the "I'm a lover, not a fighter" angle. His final scenes did nothing broaden his range in acting and may have only cast him deeper into a particular mold of character, much like how Michael Bean will forever be the quintessential soldier.

Diane Kruger was well cast as Helen. She's not exceptionally beautiful per se, but her look fits well for that time period. I'm sure we all have other actresses whom we fancy more than Kruger, but she was the best looking one in Troy, and hence believable that she would be prized above others.

Eric Bana and Peter O'Toole were both excellent.

Odyssesus / Boromir (not sure of his name at the moment) was exceptional, and would be a great lead should the studios decide to make a movie loosely based on The Odyssey.

Overall, a very entertaining movie.


-NHN

Sean Bean was great as Odysseus, and I wouldn't mind a spin off, but the Amande Asante/Hallmark miniseries was good enough for me.

Oh, and the Penny Arcade comis reflects the opinions of some here (although I can say that this comic really isn't that original):

^^ it's funny though, cuz it's true.

You know - I've been thinking lately that they need to re-make Clash of the Titans... but after watching this, I'm starting to rethink it.

haha, i love the comic

Is that Lamal from Kajagoogoo?

I'll take Maggie. We can double date.

The movie was pretty ehh for me. There were some decent fight scenes, particularly the Hector/Achilles one but the movie didn't flow for me. I didn't sympathize with Pitt's character at all although I liked his dynamic fighting style. O'Toole was good, Bana was Ok, but I thought the rest were bad. Actually Bean was pretty good too.

There was a very mixed reaction in the theater when I saw it. The woman next to me was crying, a couple of people in the back stood up and applauded, I heard a couple of yawns but mostly I heard muttering.

I thought it was okay. saw it last night. the script was pretty bad, but i thought the actors/director made the most of it. i wasnt dissapointed, but it was great by any means.

oh and for those interested, Diane Kruger may have had a no nudity clause in the contract for this movie, but you all can go rent "the target" to see her naked

How could you watch the movie with all that noise?!?


-NHN

I saw this tonight, and honestly, I didn't think it was that much better than the made for TV movies about the Illiad. It was entertaining though.

Considering she paid for her new boobs, why not show the world? She's showed her natural boobs in her past modeling work plenty of times.

Globe and Mail (Toronto) columnist/novelist Russell Smith has this to say about the recent film and the TV series - apparently nobody cares about the Robert Wise 1955 version (sigh):

Connecting the dots between Troy and Iraq

By RUSSELL SMITH
Thursday, May 27, 2004 - Page R3

Last Friday I watched Troy, the Wolfgang Petersen version of the Trojan War with Brad Pitt (bad, but not quite as bad as you would imagine; in fact quite a lot of fun); Saturday I watched, almost all day, the 2003 miniseries from the USA Network on the same theme, on A&E (with the steely Rufus Sewell as Agamemnon); and on Monday, the Discovery Channel aired a Dutch-produced documentary on the history of Troy. It has been heavenly.

I have been spending the time between battles in reference books, checking up on who each character's parents were (their lineage, which is crucial to Homer's story, and then to Virgil's, is almost always elided by film versions of this story; as a result, most of the films don't make sense). I have loved these tales ever since I had a book of abridged stories with stark illustrations of menacing Greek helmets and bloodied swords and beautiful girls watching from towers.

Later, I admired them because of their sympathetic or at least neutral relating of human failures. The great heroes are weak or vain; they make stupid mistakes out of vanity or jealousy; they sulk and run away from time to time, and yet they are still heroes. They still retain our attention and even, for the most part, our sympathy - maybe because people are like that, especially people we love.

Hollywood's most recent Trojan epic chooses Achilles as the centre of the story, which is not a bad idea, as he's a marvellously complicated character, full of irrationality. Interestingly, the USA Network miniseries chose Paris and Helen as protagonists, almost completely eliminating Achilles's story from the script - no grieving over Patroclus, no clear reason to hate Hector so. Conversely, the Petersen movie makes no mention of Cassandra, Priam's loopy, scary daughter, who is, I think, pretty important.

Neither film refers to the gods at all, which is simply ludicrous, as they are constantly intervening in the action, making suggestions to the main characters and even interfering in actual events. (Paris's single combat with Menelaus, for example, should be interrupted by Aphrodite, who spirits Paris away in a cloud of dust.) I guess the filmmakers didn't want to complicate the story with a second entire cast of characters, or perhaps they didn't want to upset Christian America with an apparent acceptance of polytheism.

That's not the only censorship of troubling ancient values. In both movies, Achilles is a baffling and opaque character, because both directors have been afraid to tackle his story and his motivation. Why does Achilles get so upset about the death of Patroclus, his "cousin"? He has seen dozens of his close friends die - they are all warriors, what's the big deal? Most analyses of the Iliad refer to Patroclus not as the hero's cousin but as his "dear friend" or "great friend." We know what that means in ancient Greece. Why else does Achilles go mad and savage with grief and rage? He has lost his lover.

So why is the story of the Trojan War popular now, if its fundamental values - polytheism, aristocracy, magic, slavery, accepted homosexuality - are so inimical to a contemporary mentality? Why do we keep coming back to those terrifying images of the thousand-ship fleet, of a great warrior descending into brutality?

Troy the film does a great job with the invasion scene, the ships landing on the sandy beach. The troops leaping into the shallow water under a hail of arrows, some drowning in the surf, the long lines like ants making their way toward the bunkers. . . . If it seems familiar, it's because it looks so much like the D-Day scenes in Saving Private Ryan, and like actual newsreel footage of the Normandy invasions. Wars don't change very much.

Why is Achilles ever so fascinating? Well, guess what he does, in a foreign land, mad with sorrow, at war, having seen his loved one die? He turns into a barbarian. He kills his enemy and then degrades his corpse by dragging it behind his chariot around the walls of Troy, a ritual parade of humiliation. He breaks the rules of civilized combat. Everyone is shocked. Then he feels bad about it later.

Hello. Where have we seen this recently? First the Iraqis did it, to those "contractors" they killed, then the Americans did it to at least one dead prisoner at Abu Ghraib. Everyone was shocked and appalled on both sides. You'd think this had never happened before in a war.

Actually, it happens in every war. The Greeks were the most civilized people on Earth when Achilles, the greatest hero of them all, had his temper tantrum (and subsequent remorse). No one thought that the Belgians would join the ranks of the cruel and bloodthirsty when they subjugated the Congo. The Belgians - the dowdy, homebody Belgians! And I don't even need to mention Canada - the polite, self-effacing Canadians! - who, we were sure, would never have been capable of torturing teenagers to death on official duty. This is what happens in wars, and it is precisely why the United Nations advises against them.

Here is another part of the Trojan War that is familiar from several invasions in history: The siege of the city did not last a few days, as shown in the movie. The Greeks could not immediately subdue Troy, so they occupied the Trojan countryside for 10 years. By the end of which time they were very demoralized, sick of killing and hatred, and many of them wanted to go home. Hollywood has left that part out.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...7/TPColumnists

Just came back from Troy! I thought it was good!

Not perfect, but very good and I'll definently get the DVD when it comes out.

Peter O'Toole and Eric Bana, especially Bana were awesome. Helen was hot. A bit more guy eyecandy would have been good.. 100.000 half naked guys and 5 dressed females is just off for us straight guys

That review was in The Globe & Mail? Pretty cool. I had always thought they were a right wing paper.

Actually, The Globe was recently taken to task by that loud-mouthed fascist on the Fox News Channel for being a bunch of hippie, communist freaks because our TV critic (John Doyle) said that Canada didn't need to get Fox News to know what was going on in the world. (Canada still doesn't get Fox News.) I forget the name of the loud-mouthed fascist Bush mouthpiece. But you know who he is...

Aha. No wonder her face looks so familiar.

About the movie. At first, I thought I would never survive it, since the battles seemed too many and too tiring for me. To my surprise, I sat still to the end of it. I cringed a couple of times during the battle scenes, especially during the battle of Hector vs. Achilles, which was beautifully choreographed (and for once I didn't know .. and I still don't know whose side I am on. Should that be Paris vs. Achilles, it would have been easier).

And I enjoyed the drama for most.

My highlights:
1. Peter O'Toole. His scene alone with Brad Pitt was so good. I never thought I would cry watching this kind of movie, but there .. I cried. Instantly.
2. Eric Bana. Frankly speaking, I like how the movie focuses on him more than on Orlando Bloom. And Hector has the potential to be my favourite character of Bana.
3. Brad Pitt. Ok, he's a hottie. But it's neither the thing I like about him in this movie, nor his heroism whatsoever. It's his relationship with Briseis .. kinda brought up a different side of Achilles.

Overall, it's an O.K. movie. Not for my collection, though.

I think there's a bit too much hating

sure it aint perfect but it's a fun enough film with enough action, drama and a pinch of romance to satisfy

sure all the performances weren't great, Eric Bana was the best but hey tis all good

I really liked this movie.Eric Bana really shines in this movie.
Here are some pics of the Troy stuff in my TOWN!

Cool horse!